Shell-Dense Island Off Culasawani, Vanua Levu Island, Fiji: Midden or Muddle?

Abstract

Investigations of a 3000 m2 shell-dense island surrounded by mangroves off the coast of Culasawani, a very lightly inhabited part of northern Vanua Levu Island in Fiji, suggest it is likely to be a ‘midden island’ rather than a (tsunami) wave deposit. Building an island that reaches 60 cm above mean high tide, the shell-dense deposit (70%–90% shell) averages 20–40 cm thick and appears unstratified, characteristics that initially suggested that it was a wave deposit. Subsequent investigations included four 1 × 1 m test pits and showed all shellfish remains in the island sediments to be from edible species and associated with pottery fragments. Ten radiocarbon ages cluster around a median age of 1190 cal BP (760 CE/AD) with a range of 1530–910 cal BP (420–1040 CE/AD). The clustering of these ages and the nature of the shellfish remains lead to the preferred interpretation of this shell-dense island as a true ‘midden island’, created either by people living on/above the site or by people who processed shellfish there before transporting its flesh elsewhere for consumption. If the Culasawani island is a midden island, then this is the first to be recorded in the South Pacific west of Papua New Guinea.